Dell Recovery Assistant

The thread here has some information -- the answer depends on exactly what you selected to have the recovery back up.

https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/supportassist-for-pcs/after-system-restoring-by-supportassist-recovery-tool-all-my-file-is-gone/647fa1e9f4ccf8a8de742371

No there is no information how  to recover. Just some opinion and advises ("you should use OneDrive").

What I am asking is that someone who knows how Assistant works, tell me how to recover files stored on external drive by Assistant itself.

Thank you in advance :)

At least how I can restore Windows settings (should be saved by Assistant)? This is much more important than files.

The first question you need to ask and answer is whether you actually made a backup before you ran the support assist restore -- that's the primary issue.  If you did not, there is no backup to restore.

OK, do you know how to restore the settings, or you are here just to ask questions?

The answer is that if the backup had been made, it would appear in the list on your backup drive.  The recovery process finds the backup and then restores it.

You never answered the question as to whether you made a backup before starting the restore process -- that's the sticking point.  It appears you did not, which means there is no backup to restore.

I do have a regular back up on local external HD, on OneDrive and on Google.

But, the Dell software (during the process) made a backup of personal files and WINDOWS SETTINGS.

And this is what I am looking for; how to restore SETTINGS? 

Now, you never answered question: do you know how to restore?

The image you posted has the answer -- if there is a backup on the external drive, the software finds it automatically and the restore will begin. 

Click the scan again button -- if the restore software doesn't find the backup, one has not been made.  That's why I've asked multiple times if you made that backup.  The evident answer is that you did not -- meaning you will need those other backups to restore your data files.  As for the Windows settings, they're lost now since they have not been backed up.

If the restore has proceeded to the point where the system is functional, locate and reload the backup files you have.  That's the best you can do.

Going forward, there are much better ways to back up the system in case of a future failure -- starting with storing (and verifying before storage) a system image made with an imaging utility.  

You are missing the point: Recovery Assistant did the backup (all I had to do was to select external HD). So the backup is done, but Assistant, after system restore, says it can't find it. So it is a software issue!!!

Again; I found on that HD, a newly made folder "Do_Not_Delete" obviously made by Assistant. The format of backed up files is USMT.

I can recovery files from my own backups, but I need to recover the settings (I had two users, .pst files for Outlook etc.)

If the system was not booting before you made that backup, the backup failed.  Backup software is only as effective at backing up as the system's condition when the backup was made.

The only reliable backup is a full system image made from a system that's known to be working.  Even a system image made from an unbootable system will not be bootable if restored.

You can easily re-create the user profiles, but if there was no separate backup of the PST files, and there's no OST file available on the email server, those files are gone.

Now, as you couldn't provide the answer (but stubbornly repeated that I didn't make a backup) here is the answer how to recover the files created by Assistant but the app failed to recover them:

As shown at the top, Assistant made on external drive the USMT folders. USMT stands for "User State Migration Tool".

To recover files you need to:

1.Download the latest Deployment Kit USMT directly from Microsoft

2. Install ADK

3. Follow https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/usmt/usmt-extract-files-from-a-compressed-migration-store

Btw. PST/OST files are recovered :)

Goran, I hope you can see this. I am in the same situation you were, and that allows me to fully understand your clear, complete, and patient explanation of your situation. Thanks for posing the question and the answer. It will surely help others.

Editing this post as I am working through things. The second link above got me going, but as I am unfamiliar, it is taking me some time to figure out the exact things that are left as an exercise for the reader.

I can believe that the Dell SupportAssist Recovery Assistant SHOULD find and process the files+settings archive file (.MIG), but on my computer, with an external USB drive, doing exactly what you did, with the exact directory structure you show above, and having the 3x USMT.MIG files (one each for apps / files / settings) created on the USB drive exactly as you show, Dell cannot find them and stubbornly tells me there are none, repeatedly.

Following your links above, I installed the ADK dated Sept 2023, which installed to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\

Then running
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\User State Migration Tool\x86\usmtutils.exe

BTW, my Dell laptop originally came with Win 10, but was immediately upgraded to Win 11, and the restore process properly restored it to Win 11 in an unmodified state. So this "10" seems to be working fine on my 11.

Start button. Search on Command Prompt, select run as Administrator (otherwise will get UsmtUtils return code: 71).

In that Command Prompt as Administrator, change directory to the one where UsmtUtils.EXE installed to (avoiding any problems with path).
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\User State Migration Tool\x86

Then, wanting to extract everything that was saved, I ran UsmtUtils 3 times, once for each of apps / files / settings (each of which has its own USMT.MIG file on my external drive), with separate target extraction directories. After running once to extract apps, for example, it will fail (protest) to do it for another one (e.g., files), not wanting to overwrite something - so the target extraction directories need to be different (could override or merge manually afterwards if wanted). So I ran these 3x commands:

.\UsmtUtils /extract D:\Do_Not_Delete\USMT\migstore\apps\USMT\USMT.MIG c:\extractionA\
.\UsmtUtils /extract D:\Do_Not_Delete\USMT\migstore\files\USMT\USMT.MIG c:\extractionF\
.\UsmtUtils /extract D:\Do_Not_Delete\USMT\migstore\settings\USMT\USMT.MIG c:\extractionS\

They each worked to extract to those extraction directories.

I previously had my single laptop hard drive partitioned to C and D. In the automatic RESET procedure, that was undone to a single C drive, which I have not yet modified. In the extraction, the files are placed in C$ and D$ directories, accordingly. E.g., a file that was previously D:\directory\filename.txt will be extracted to C:\extractionF\USMT\File\D$\directory\filename.txt

Also on the files, I can see that all the time stamps are updated to current (unfortunately), and some of the PDF and JPG files (at least) are placed in newly created folders for each file along with a metadata file. JPG photos of mine are fine, but JPG copied from the internet have this metadata file plus an individual folder. So it looks like if metadata exists that is placed separately here.

Not sure how to use the extracted settings. I will of course know where to put my "files" and the PST files from "apps", but am not sure how the settings will be implemented. First thing I will try is to re-run the Dell software, hoping it will find these files and know what to do with them, automatically.

Any clues or ideas will be appreciated. I will keep this updated, as I'm sure Goran and I are not the only ones to be victims of this problem.

@dreddie​ and @Goran.K 

Thank you both very much for your posts.
I had EXACTLY the same problem after an OS recovery and was at a loss ! Your posts have been very helpful and most reassuring.
I'm currently extracting my files :-)

John

@dreddie @Goran.K  

Dear Dreddie and Goran, 

I am immensely grateful for the help you provided here. I have no words to express my gratitude. It's quite ironic that we all face the same problems, and Dell has not addressed this issue to assist other users. 

I have just recovered all the files I thought were lost forever. My immense THANK YOU!
I have just finished extracting my files at this moment!

Best regards,
Kim

THANK YOU @Goran.K and @dreddie!  I was doubly stuck by a fatal Windows 11 update and the terrible Dell Recovery Assistant, which not only didn't work, but also didn't backup everything I needed.  I was only able to recover files after following your thread and advice.  @dreddie's command prompt instructions were especially helpful.

Beware that Dell's Recovery Assistant only backs up select files, like "Documents," "Desktop," and "Downloads."  Any other folders you added to the hard drive (C:\) are not included.